Sub-fab equipment do not have monitoring data for energy consumption and/or energy savings. The inventors believe that legislation in the US and around the world may eventually require users to report baseline CO2 and global warming gas (GWG) emissions by tool as well as across the factory. The inventors further believe that owners and/or operators of fabs may wish to collect such data for internal use as well.
For example, the current industrial paradigm for accurately measuring real time factory chemical emissions at the tool level is very expensive, takes a long time, and requires a large number of equipment sets and technical specialists. Statistical models that predict generic factory emissions for a defined group of factory types or production categories, as proposed by industry consortia, have been shown to deviate from actual factory emissions by a large factor, such as 20%-400%. The inventors believe that carbon trading value or environmental damage assessments/fines that may be imposed by legislation would make it problematic to make such assessments based on such high uncertainty.
The inventors further believe that full factory emissions reporting on a per tool or full factory basis would require data that is collected by certified methods and certified skilled workers. This characterization would be very expensive and technically difficult. Each tool emissions values change with adjustments in recipe and support equipment parameters. Production facilities, and foundries typically must make process and support equipment adjustments in order to ensure that a factory certified in the past may continue to control emissions in the future. In order to accurately measure the emissions of a particular set of equipment, appropriate effluent sample ports must be made available to measure the output after the process tool and abatement. Factory stack locations must also have appropriate sample ports. The analytical tool sets specified, and industry approved protocols and methods are very expensive to execute. Emissions characterization is very time consuming and must be done over multiple process cycles to assure statistically significant data that are accurately representative of factory emissions. Analysis of data for accuracy and repeatability requires expert and/or certified chemists to collect and interpret data. The metrology tool sets require documentation, certification, and calibration for each data set. Third party companies who make such measurements require a month or more to schedule and a month or more to collect, interpret data, and write a report. Scheduling several days of access time (per tool) to collect emissions measurements under production conditions is very difficult due to concerns of production losses and factory upset.
Various global locations, regions, and countries have differing regulatory emissions requirements. Many include daily, quarterly and/or yearly accumulative reports supported by credible metrics. Local water treatment plants have differing minimum incoming water requirements that users must certify their effluent to meet.